Buzzwole ex and Pheromosa (TCG Pocket)

Buzzwole ex and Pheromosa
Buzzwole ex and Pheromosa Types used Major cards Buzzwole ex, Pheromosa, Celesteela Era 2025-present

Buzzwole ex and Pheromosa (alternatively Grass Ultra Beasts) is a Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket deck archetype that has been played since the release of Extradimensional Crisis in 2025. It is an aggressive deck built around using Pheromosa to deal chip damage across the opponent's Active Pokémon and Bench before using Buzzwole ex's Big Beat attack to score quick knockouts.

Because this deck focuses heavily around the Ultra Beast support package in Extradimensional Crisis, most of its key Pokémon and support cards can be found in that pack. Its Grass focus also grants it access to other earlier support cards. Due to its speed and power, Buzzwole ex and Pheromosa is one of the strongest archetypes of Extradimensional Crisis.

Strategy

Buzzwole ex and Pheromosa takes advantage of the solid Grass-type Ultra Beasts to hit fast and hard. Pheromosa is the deck's opener, using its cost Jump Blues to wear down multiple Pokémon at once, while allowing Buzzwole ex to build up on the Bench. If Pheromosa is knocked out, Lusamine ensures this is turned into advantage by accelerating the Energy gain on Buzzwole ex, allowing for Big Beat to become usable more quickly. Celesteela's Ultra Thruster Ability is a fantastic asset for the deck, allowing easy switching while also providing a powerful combo with Buzzwole ex: normally, Big Beat cannot be used two turns in a row, but putting Buzzwole ex on the bench removes this condition. As such, using Ultra Thrusters to switch Buzzwole ex for Pheromosa, and then retreating Pheromosa (or using two Celesteela to switch Buzzwole ex out and back in), allows Big Beat to be used consecutively for massive damage. Its high HP also allows it to buy time for Buzzwole to build Energy.

Because the main Pokémon of this deck are Grass-type, they enjoy support from Erika and Leaf Cape to greatly enhance Buzzwole's durability. Cyrus is also a powerful support card for the deck due to Pheromosa's easy Bench damage. The other Grass-type Ultra Beast, Kartana, is also sometimes played alongside Pheromosa for its greater potential to get early knockouts.

Weaknesses

While Buzzwole ex's Big Beat is very powerful for the cost, sidestepping its drawback requires significant amounts of support. Celesteela is mandatory to use Big Beat every turn and is often used to tank damage, making it vulnerable to being picked off on the Bench or by Cyrus, leaving Buzzwole ex to use its weak Punch every other turn.

Pom-Pom Oricorio presents a unique obstacle to the deck if it does not run Kartana or other tech cards, as it can outdamage Pheromosa, ignore Buzzwole ex entirely, and hit Celesteela's weakness for a two-hit knockout.

Key cards

Extradimensional Crisis

• Buzzwole ex - The key card of the deck, Buzzwole ex is a strong Basic Pokémon ex that can deal 120 damage for a modest using Big Beat. While Big Beat cannot be used twice in a row, putting Buzzwole on the Bench removes this restriction, and switching it back in the same turn will allow it to continue hitting for heavy damage.
• Pheromosa - The deck's early-game attacker. Pheromosa's Jump Blues attack costs only 1 Energy and can hit both the opponent's Active Pokémon and their Benched Pokémon simultaneously, which both puts pressure on the opponent and sets up knockouts for Buzzwole ex later on.
• Celesteela - A strong support Pokémon for Ultra Beast-centric strategies, Celesteela is uniquely valuable as a support for Buzzwole ex. As previously described, Ultra Thrusters allowing Buzzwole to exit the Active spot before re-entering through a normal Retreat in the same turn is key to maximizing its effectiveness with back-to-back Big Beat attacks.
• Lusamine - Recycles Energy from defeated Pokémon onto Buzzwole ex, potentially allowing it to charge up Big Beat in a single turn.

Genetic Apex

• Erika - A very strong healing Supporter for Grass-type Pokémon, Erika allows Buzzwole to trade blows much more effectively.

Celestial Guardians

• Leaf Cape - A Pokémon Tool that grants a large HP boost to Grass-type Pokémon, bringing Buzzwole ex out of range of most attacks.

Typical decklist

The deck list below is meant to represent an average build of the archetype, not specifically constructed for any regional metagame. The number of support and Item cards is highly variable, depending on each play style.

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Quantity	Card	Type	Rarity
2×	Buzzwole
2×	Pheromosa
2×	Celesteela
2×	Poké Ball	Item	—
2×	Leaf Cape	Tool
2×	Erika	Supp
2×	Cyrus	Supp
1×	Red	Supp
1×	Guzma	Supp
2×	Lusamine	Supp
2×	Professor's Research [Professor Oak]	Supp	—
Energy used:

Possible tech cards

The following cards can be used in Buzzwole ex decks in place of certain cards included in the above list.

• Kartana - A second early-game attacker that focuses more on pressuring the Active Pokémon, potentially knocking out early Basic Pokémon, at the cost of not setting up later knockouts with Bench damage. Kartana and Pheromosa can easily be switched between using Celesteela.
• Ilima - Can remove damage from a Celesteela that was used to tank.
• Beastite - Can help Pokémon hit damage thresholds later in the game, allowing Kartana and Pheromosa to threaten more two-hit knockouts or allow Buzzwole to deal one-hit knockouts against most Basic Pokémon ex.

This article is part of both Project Sidegames and Project TCG, Bulbapedia projects that, together, aim to write comprehensive articles on video games about the TCG.